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It started out as a chance for dairy farmers to celebrate their products and counter any bad press around their industry.

The inaugural Februdairy social media campaign launched in February 2018 to follow Veganuary, when the public shunned meat and dairy products to adopt the vegan lifestyle throughout the month of January.

There was room for both well-meaning campaigns to co-exist and promote the benefits of their individual lifestyles.

But this year, as the popularity of veganism continues to soar and dietary choice becomes an increasingly contentious – and sometimes militant – issue, that does not appear to be the case.

Project Calf, an online animal rights campaign formed last month by a group of vegan activists who are against dairy farming, hopes to take over Februdairy, capitalise on the rise of veganism and spread its own message. Indeed, it thinks it already has.

‘Hijacking Februdairy’

“We think we have already overshadowed Februdairy,” Project Calf spokeswoman Jess Holden tells i. “With regards to hijacking them, the [Februdairy] hashtag certainly does provide vegan activists with an easy way to talk about the routine abuses of the dairy industry.”

Project Calf wants more people to turn their back on dairy farming by going vegan. It wants to do this by showing the supposedly sordid reality of how milk is produced.

Its plan is to encourage vegan activists to use public footpaths to approach dairy farms across England where they can protest, hold vigils and take photos of what they see and share them on social media.

‘You know the dairy industry shows pictures of happy cows in fields – it’s a very rose-tinted view of what happens to animals’

Jess Holden, Project Calf

“You know the dairy industry shows pictures of happy cows in fields – it’s a very rose-tinted view of what happens to animals,” says Holden. “All we want to do is say to people – especially vegetarians who have chosen to not eat meat because they care about animals – is that their dietary choices are leading to calves being taken from their mothers at a couple of days old and to cows being repeatedly impregnated until they’re not useful any more and get sent to slaughter for cheap grade meat.

“That’s not what the dairy industry tells you. Otherwise you wouldn’t be buying their products. It’s education,” adds Holden.

Project Calf not only takes issue with the consumption of animal products, but also the way in which traditional farmers produce milk. Calves tend to be separated from their mothers within a day of their birth to ensure the majority of the cow’s milk is taken for humans, rather than for feeding the calf. This separation can be distressful for both cows and their calves.

Holden says: “Dairy farmers are caught in a difficult position, on the one hand they want to present their industry in a good light, on the other they are keenly aware that many practices would not be acceptable to consumers.”

Map of dairy farms

The highly contentious aspect about Project Calf’s campaign is the decision to create a map marking out the addresses of all the dairy farms in England, making it easier for activists to target the farms. Project Calf retrieved the data, which is publicly-available, from the Food Standards Agency (FSA).

She insists that activists who visit dairy farms are not out to “harass people” or “scare the animals”.

“We are animal lovers. We follow strict guidelines on not upsetting the animals we don’t go up to the cows and make them jump, we’re just there to take a picture of the cow or the calf in the separation pen and then we’ll share that on social media and go hey, this is why this calf has been taken away from its mother,” she says.

‘Concerned’ farmers

Holden says getting activists to visit farms is just one part of Project Calf’s awareness-raising initiative but farmers, understandably, are most concerned with this aspect.

“The Food Standards Agency are obliged to publish [the data] which is one of the reasons we have such high traceability standards in the UK,” says farmer Paul Tompkins.

But the 39-year-old knows his industry will be concerned about the data being used by vegan activists. He points out that publishing the address of a farm is more than just publishing a business address – the farm is also a home. “This isn’t the address of a unit on an industrial estate, this is where my children live… Some farmers become concerned,” says Tompkins, who does not want his East Midlands farm to be named.

He believes promoting veganism is interlocked with “mistruth and inaccuracy” about the dairy industry and that confrontations between farmers and activists could “facilitate additional incursions on farms”.

“It’s not just to inform people about where to go for a walk in the countryside, it’s to promote a vegan cause and there’s only one way of doing that and that’s to try and discredit what we do. If this were a list of schools and people were being encouraged to go and film outside it wouldn’t be acceptable.

“We feel a little like the laws around sharing data have been used in an unfair way,” he says.

Paul Tompkins’ farm is in the East Midlands (Photo: Paul Tomkpins)

Michael Oakes, the National Farmers’ Union dairy board chairman, says: “British farming has some of the highest standards of production in the world, which are highly valued by the public, and our farmers are proud of the safe traceable food we produce. We respect the right of people to choose whatever diet they wish.

“The NFU has no issue with lawful peaceful protesting but such protests should not turn into the harassment and intimidation of our farmer members; there should be no place in society for that.”

Privacy

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which is an independent regulator for data protection, says the reuse of the FSA’s data by Project Calf “causes concern”.

“If anyone has concerns about how their data has been handled, the ICO website has a range of guidance about what to do and how to make a complaint,” said the ICO.

However a data expert, who wishes to remain anonymous, says there are “no obvious legal reasons why Project Calf should not republish [the FSA’s] information on a map”.

“However names of individual farmers are personal data, so data protection laws still apply. Any activist group that uses information from the map must consider the privacy rights of farmers and their families,” they added.

High standards

Despite his concerns over the re-sharing of farming addresses, Tompkins is not personally worried if vegan activists turn up at his farm.

He is proud of how the cattle on his family-run farm are cared for and the standards around producing milk. “[British farms] have some of the highest standards in the world.

“We host open days on our farm, the majority of dairy farmers are open and transparent about what we do. You really only have to look over our hedgerow when you’re out for a walk in the countryside and you can see what dairy farming is all about.”

Tompkins is in favour of celebrating dairy products and farming. And although he has not had any direct involvement with Februdairy, he doesn’t see why it can’t co-exist with pro-vegan campaigns.

“What’s important to remember is people have the right to choose to eat whatever they want.

“I think there’s plenty of room to celebrate everyone’s dietary choice. The internet is a massive space so there is room for us. This isn’t about eating one way or another. We can all choose. Let’s celebrate the fact we can choose what we eat.”

Train stations remove adverts for Morrissey album over political views

Morrisons rolls out plastic-free zones for 127 types of fruit and veg

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